Changing childcare needs

[Flumpsnlumpsnstuff]

Hi, I'm new to mumsnet but I thought some of you lovely ladies may be able to help me. My two daughter are 9&10 and have been through nursery to school and now have an amazing childminder the problem is all the other children are younger so my girls feel bored when they are there and now we live in a village some of their friends ( only child's ) are allowed to go home after school for upto 2 hours with a parent who pops by to check on them! I feel under pressure to change my arrangements for when the oldest goes to secondary school but am loathed to lose a great childminder and refuse to allow them to be latch key kids like me ( I did lots of naughty things ) any advice is welcomed.

I am sorry not there so not advice but interested to my mind this is the hardest time in childcare.. As they don't want the structured holiday clubs and child minders but not really ready to be independent .

Could they be semi-latch key and walk from the secondary school to the childminders?

9 and 10 is still very young

They do walk to the childminders alone as it is only one road away . Yes 9 and 10 is still very young or maybe I am being nieve here ? Thank you for your responses so far

You know your children best. There are 10 year olds who still require a lot of supervision and there are some who have a lot of common sense. It also depends how independent your girls are and how much time alone we're talking about. I'm quite happy to leave my 10 year old alone for a couple of hours at home when the other two are at children's party with me. She prefers to stay at home and do some reading or watch tv. She can help herself to some food but is only allowed to use microwave or kettle (I'm still training her to use the oven and stove). She knows not to open the door and she'll ring if she has any questions or wants me to come back to get her (this hasn't happened).
When I was her age I was used to staying at home on my own with my younger brother after school and in school holidays. We knew there was a retired neighbour next door if we needed help. It wasn't anything unusual as many of my friends did the same. I hated afterschool club.
Saying all that ... there's no way in the world I would leave my younger two (aged 4 and 6) on their own. They are a handful and really unpredictable (I still have a lot of work there).